Cordray is the key subject here. Jim and your local editorial board really, really like him for this job and really, really believe it’s a necessary agency. And they may be right, although that’s not the point.

Those are the ends. The means are one branch of government — Obama’s — overruling the Constitutional authority of another branch — the legislative — to decide when it is and isn’t in session.

Article I, Section 5, of the Constitution states that neither house of Congress may adjourn for more than three days without the consent of the other house. The House of Representatives did not consent to a Senate recess of more than three days at the end of last year, and so the Senate, consistent with the requirements of the Constitution, must have some sort of session every few days.

The president and anyone else may object that the Senate is conducting “pro forma” sessions, but that does not render them constitutionally meaningless, as some have argued. In fact, the Senate did pass a bill during a supposedly “pro forma” session on Dec. 23, a matter the White House took notice of since the president signed the bill into law. The president cannot pick and choose when he deems a Senate session to be “real.”

It does not matter one whit that most members of Congress are out of town and allow business to be conducted by their agents under unanimous consent procedures, because ending a session of Congress requires the passage of a formal resolution, which never occurred and could not have occurred without the consent of the House.

We have an editorial coming on Cordray, which I’m sure will argue that those dastardly Republicans left Obama no choice or something like that. But that’s only half-true; he had a choice and chose the unconstitutional path.

So be it. I’m sure the board will see it the same way when a Republican president decides minority Democrats are just messing with him and decides they are no longer a co-equal branch of government and that the words in the Constitution mean whatever he says they mean.

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The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board was the first editorial board in the nation to use a blog to openly discuss hot topics and issues among its members and with readers. Our intent is to pull back the curtain on the daily process of producing the unsigned editorials that reflect the opinion of the newspaper, and to share analysis and opinion on issues of interest to board members and invited guest bloggers.